24 Hours
by MADARAmagekyo
Summary: Tela Vasir is dead. They know the Shadow Broker's location. Little do Shepard and Liara realize that the journey there will be one of the most challenging struggles they have ever faced. Please review. I love constructive criticism.
1. Reflections

**FOREWORD**

_Guess I should make a brief Introduction since this is my very first publication. I've really enjoyed what I've been reading on this site a lot over the years so I figured it was my turn to take a shot at it._

_Mass Effect is a series near and dear to my heart and I've played through all the games on multiple occasions, one time as a feisty redhead with a thing for turians, another where two engineers, one human and the other quarian, fell madly in love. However, my first ever playthrough is the one that sticks out the most in my mind. I was playing as good old Sheploo who fell for Liara. So with this story, I want to imagine what the trip from Illium to Hagalaz was like for the two of them since, in the game, the scene on Azure ends on a sour note and the subject of their relationship isn't really addressed until Liara defeats the Shadow Broker._

_I'm trying to keep some things about Shepard pretty generalized - appearance, paragon/renegade, class, etc., as naturally everyone who's played the game will have had a slightly different Shepard. My hope is that it will more easily allow the reader to imagine their own version of Shepard in the story. However, for the purposes of this story we're going to proceed on the premise that Shepard didn't fool around on Liara with any of the available ME2 love interests, so bear that in mind.  
_

_My intent is to focus this story entirely on personal interactions on the Normandy, so there isn't going to be any combat. I am rating this a T for some profanity and sexual themes but there will not be any hanky-panky. If things go over well with this story, well, I'm not sure - maybe there'll be more._

_Please write up a review if you like the story. Please write up a review if you hate it. Heck, write a review if you notice any grammatical or spelling errors. Above all though, enjoy the story. Thanks.  
_

_Oh, and Mass Effect is the property of EA/Bioware, natch.  
_

* * *

The trip from the Crescent Nebula to the Hourglass Nebula was only a single primary relay jump. Including prep-time the Normandy could arrive on the outskirts of the Ossun System in three hours. From the primary relay orbiting Ossun, it was another twenty-one galactic standard hours of trekking across the Hourglass Nebula to the Sowilo System, even at top FTL. And at the end of that journey – Hagalaz.

Liara was not looking forward to the trip. While a part of her was eager to be done with it – it was, after all, a mere 24 hour flight that signified the culmination of more than 2 years of dedicated searching – another part of her was acutely aware that it was 24 long and torturous hours trapped on a ship with Shepard. This new Normandy may have been almost twice the size of the ship they had shared all those years ago but it was nowhere near big enough to allow either of them to successfully avoid each other.

**REFLECTIONS**

Things had ended poorly on Illium. Liara knew that a great deal of the blame for that rested with her. "I… I can't do this right now. Can we please just focus on finding Feron?" It had been an evasion, one she feared may have sounded to his ears like a rejection. All he had wanted to do was talk – just talk – and she had shut down any chance at conversing. Liara knew that it was painful for both of them but after years of coping, she couldn't imagine any other way she could have handled it, not that such rationalizing lessened the guilt she felt. She had constructed a wall in her mind, built up steadily over the last two years. It had been tall and strong, or so she thought. That wall was the only thing that had allowed her to function. Every time that grief or despair had threatened to overwhelm her, every time that sadness turned to depression and then depression threatened to descend into madness, she would reinforce that wall. She would seek refuge by it, building it up just a little higher, making it just a little bit stronger. Only now she realized precisely how feeble an effort that had been. On Illium, in Shepard's presence, she had come to understand that, for all her efforts, that wall was not one scintilla stronger than it absolutely had to be to maintain her sanity.

Shepard had walked in to her office just days ago and at once she could feel the wall breaking apart. She could feel that mental edifice, the bedrock of her sanity that had for so long allowed her to function, to cope, come tumbling down. She had fought against it. Struggled to maintain that barrier. Because she knew that on the other side of that wall, madness waited for her. Everything that she and Shepard had been through, everything that they had experienced together, and all the love that she had felt, still felt, waited to come pouring through. And she knew beyond any doubt that it would destroy her. As much as his death had torn her apart, this was so much worse. In fleeting moments that danced on the edge of her awareness, moments for which she despised herself but was nonetheless powerless to prevent, she found herself wishing that Shepard was still dead.

Yet, part of Liara was still viscously angry with Shepard. To just come back, to pop back into her life for a few days as though no time had passed. As though nothing had changed. To act as though everything was supposed to simply return to how it had been. "Shepard, I'm glad you're here, but…"

"Why?" He had asked it as though expecting an answer, pausing afterwards. "Are you worried there might be some more terminals you need me to hack?"

She had graduated magna cum laude at the University of Serrice. In all her published studies and scholarly writings she was described as precise and eloquent. One of her peers had even said that her mastery of language would put the scrupulous precision of most Hanar to shame. But words had failed her. Somehow, whether it was the interference of her own feelings or some magnetic effect that Shepard seemed to have on those around him, or perhaps some combination of both, words always failed her around him.

"That… That's not fair! You were dead!"

"I came back!"

"It's not as simple as that! You… you can't just spring back into my life for a few days and… and expect me to just undo two years of misery!"

"Yeah, but apparently a few days is enough to drag me into your personal revenge fantasy! Right? To put my life in danger? Garrus's life? Tali's lfe? A few days is enough for that, right?"

His words had pierced her. She had been wounded many times before. Gunshots, burns and explosive concussions and biotic blasts that had threatened to tear her apart atom by atom. But those words, the most truthful words she had ever heard spoken, cut her straight to the heart. She had hidden behind her wall. She had used him. And on some deep level she realized that she had used him because she knew he cared deeply for her. That he couldn't turn her away. She had used her bondmate, known that his feeling would ally him to her cause. Used him like a thing. And now she blamed him for it. Ration and reason fell away and she exploded at the man she loved. "Goddess! If there was anyone else I thought I could trust," and then she caught herself. The wall was breaking apart. She couldn't deal with it. They had to focus on finding Feron. She had to focus on anything other than _them_.

She sent him away as the shuttle from the Normandy came in to land. He had walked off to check on Garrus. Perhaps he just couldn't stand to look at her. In that moment, had the option been present, she'd have elected to not look at herself either.

In this moment of reflection, looking at the past, she suddenly realized that she was in reality staring at the white, sterile, and unsettlingly empty space of the Normandy's cargo bay.


	2. Effort

**EFFORT**

"Get out!"

As soon as the shuttle had docked with the Normandy, the Commander exited the crew compartment as fast as his legs would carry him. The venom with which he had barked the order nearly knocked the sole Cerberus crew member in the shuttle bay off their feet. Startled, the young man dropped the tool he was using to work on one of the cooling arrays and quickly picked it up before making a hasty retreat to the elevator. Garrus exited the shuttle almost immediately after, hurrying after Shepard. Tali jumped from the pilot's seat and made to hurry after the Commander as well, though she paused long enough to share a long and empathetic stare with Liara as if to say "I'll come by later. We'll talk." For the briefest instant, something resembling a smile danced across Liara's face and was then gone.

Shepard stopped a meter back from the elevator. In part it was to wait for Garrus and Tali but mostly it was to allow himself a quick moment to breathe – to focus. He had exploded at that crewmember. What was his name? Humphrey? Henry? Hughes? The Commander made a mental note to track him down and apologize. Commander Shepard was many things but above all he was a man who knew himself. He knew why he had lost his temper – his emotions were affecting his judgment and influencing his actions. That was unacceptable. It was dangerous in a frontline soldier but it invariably proved fatal in a commanding officer. The need to separate emotion from decision-making was at the very core of everything that the Alliance had drilled into him.

But what he was feeling persisted despite his best efforts to wrangle it into submission. The memories and pleasure they had shared through the bond; her crystaline blue eyes; the faint way the right corner of her mouth perked up when she was happy; her subtle scent that made him woozy when she was near him; how cold and clinical she had treated him upon seeing him again; the ruthlessness and anger that he could now see burning beneath her eyes; how her first request of him had been for him to act as her personal errand boy; the way she took off after Vasir without so much as a backward glance after he'd taken a three-story fall. It all combined to create a potent mix of emotions, dangerous and confusing. Sadness, anger, rejection, hope, love and loss.

"Ah-hem." The flanged voice to his right snapped Shepard back to the here and now. A commanding officer is only ever truly alone in the privacy of his thoughts but the demands on his time ensure that such respite is short lived. He stepped to the elevator and pressed the call button. It arrived momentarily and the three friends stepped inside. As Shepard was about to reach for the console to select a deck, he withdrew his hand.

"EDI," he spoke to the empty air, "if I were to give you a direct order, would you be capable of following it?"

EDI's disembodied voice responded at once, feminine but distinctly robotic. "That would depend on the nature of the order, Shepard."

"Restricted access to the cargo bay. No one in or out except for Tali, Garrus, and myself."

"Cerberus programming constraints prevent me from restricting Operative Lawson's movements aboard the ship. However the access of non-supervisory personnel and non-Cerberus crew may be restricted in the manner you request."

"Make it so EDI."

"Acknowledged. Logging you out Shepard." Shepard turned to Tali and Garrus.

"Where are you headed, Tali?"

Though her visor obscured nearly all of her features, like all Quarians, Tali's eyes luminesced. Over the long time that he'd known Tali he thought he had become quite proficient at gauging Tali's particular mental or emotional state purely by how her eyes were set. Wide in wonder or amusement, narrowed in frustration or concentration, rolling in bemusement. Here they betrayed something Shepard couldn't quite pin down. They looked almost pleading. As if unsure whether to make a statement or ask a question. Then she looked down at the floor panels and Shepard had no more time to wonder. When she spoke, her tone was flat.

"The crew deck. I'm going to swing by Doctor Chakwas's office. I took some fire at the trade center and want to do a quick suit check. After that…" Her voice trailed off. Good, at least she's minding her own business, Shepard thought. He immediately reprimanded himself – Tali had been a good friend to him. And a good friend to Liara. Shepard punched in the command for deck three on the elevator console. A moment later the elevator had arrived and the doors opened, allowing Tali a quick exit.

Garrus didn't move. Shepard paused a brief instant in the hope that what he suspected was about to ensue wouldn't. "Uh, you getting off?"

"Nope."

Damn you Garrus. "CIC?"

"Nope."

Good Christ. "Engineering."

"Nuh-uh."

You stubborn sonofabitch. "I suppose it's too much to hope you're going back down to the cargo deck?"

"Yeah, that would probably be a little overly optimistic on your part."

Garrus had always been a straight shooter, in both literal and figurative terms. He had a razor sharp mind, a keen wit and a dry sense of humor, and was fearlessly loyal even in the most desperate of circumstances. Those were the qualities that had made him such a close friend. He also had a tendency to be brutally honest and unforgivingly stubborn. Normally, those too were endearing qualities. He could look into a situation beyond the obvious, estimate chances and give sound analysis, and ensure a clean follow-through.

Currently, Shepard did not find those to be redeeming qualities in his Turian friend. "Garrus…"

"Yeah, let me stop you right there, Shep. This conversation _is_ going to happen. Whether you want to have it here in the hall while still wearing combat armor or whether you want to take it somewhere else is up to you. Personally, I'd recommend fatigues in the port lounge with a couple of stiff drinks in hand but, like I said, up to you. You need to talk about this."

"I don't want to talk about anything."

"Did you catch my choice of words just then? I said you _need_ to talk about it. What you _want_ is kind of moot."

Shepard was becoming increasingly agitated. "Garrus, you're like a brother to me so I want you to understand that I mean this with all the love and respect in the world – fuck off."

"Yeah, sweet talking won't work with me. Hell, you shouldn't be talking with me at all. You should be in the hold talking…"

Shepard interrupted, his patience clearly at an end. But unlike his earlier outburst in the cargo bay, Shepard seized control of his emotions. His tone became ice, smooth and even and devastatingly cold - the voice of command. There would be no room for further discussion or disagreement. "Okay, listen up Garrus. I am hot. I am sticky. I am sweaty. I'm covered in debris from that explosion. I'm covered in soot from the fire. I'm covered in blood from the fight. I'm dizzy from that three story drop, angry about what happened with Vasir and, yes, dealing with a number of other emotions related to things that frankly aren't any of your damn business. Finally, I will point out that I am still carrying an array of sophisticated weaponry fully loaded with thermal clips should you decide to further press this issue. I am going up to my cabin. Alone. Now get out of the elevator." Shepard paused a moment to allow his words to fully sink in.

Turian emotions are hard to read. The inflections in their voice are as discernible as any other race, Elcor and Hanar notwithstanding. However, the movements of their mandibles and chitinous face plates are dissimilar enough to what humans are accustomed as to render them almost unreadable. However, if Shepard were to hazard a guess, he would have placed the look on Garrus's face somewhere between concern and hurt. Shepard's own facial expression softened.

"… I appreciate the concern. Really. If I feel up to it you'll be the first to know…"

Garrus only nodded and slowly backed out of the elevator. The elevator slowly trundled upwards toward deck one.

By the time the doors opened into his private cabin he was already peeling off portions of his armor, allowing them to stay where they fell and making no effort to sort them. Shower, rest and food. That's what he needed. Shower first. On the desk right by the entrance to his wash sat a picture – the only one in the room. Within the frame was frozen the image of beautiful young Asari, smiling.

Shepard looked at it for a long moment with no particular thought passing his mind or feeling swelling his breast. After a time, his weary mind brought two realizations into focus. The first was that the Asari in the picture was not even 50 meters away from him right now. The second was that he wasn't entirely sure the first realization was true. Or even if that Asari still existed. With that, he slowly trundled to the shower.


	3. Camaradarie

Garrus stood outside the elevator on deck three for half a minute. To him, it felt a great deal longer, staring helplessly at the green glow of the elevator call button. On the one hand, he too felt thoroughly exhausted from the day's events and wanted nothing more than to head to the Main Battery, change out of his armor and spend a few hours unconscious in his cot. On the other, he seriously doubted that his racing thoughts would allow him any sort of respite. He could go up after Shepard – no. Shepard was iron-willed and stubborn as a – what was the human saying – donkey? No, mule. Yes, mule. He could head back down to the staging deck and see Liara – no. What the hell would he have to say?

Tali. Tali might know what to do. He wanted to check up on her anyways and make sure she hadn't suffered any sort of serious suit breach. His mandibles twitched as he made up his mind and strode off to the main battery to change out of his combat armor before going to see her in the med bay. That done, he found himself standing in front of the doors to the med bay as they slid open. Tali was sitting on one of the examination tables talking eagerly if quietly with Dr. Chakwas. Both women fell into dead silence as Garrus walked in. He paused for a moment as he thought of a way to break the awkwardness. "Everything check out with your suit?"

Dr. Chakwas responded in her typical, reassuring British accent. "There was minor wear on some of the ablative ceramic around the abdomen where a few rounds made it past her shields but I see no signs of penetration. I suspect she should be fine."

"I assume the two of you were talking about more than suit puncture protocols when I walked in." Garrus's years of work as a detective in C-Sec told him as much the moment the med bay doors opened.

Dr. Chakwas and Tali exchanged a sideways glance with one another, both their faces unreadable – Dr. Chakwas by virtue of military discipline and Tali by virtue of her mask. They seemed to reach an unspoken agreement and Tali let her gaze drop to the floor while Dr. Chakwas focused intensely on Garrus. "How bad?"

"That depends," came the flanged response. "Him or her?"

"…Both."

Garrus sighed. "Well, Shepard doesn't feel like talking about it. At least not yet, I don't think. I tried to get him to open up in the elevator but it was pretty much a no go. I'll try again later but I'm just not sure where to start – what's going on in his head right now. From what I understand he took the news pretty well about having suffered for two years from a nasty case of 'dead.' I'd think relationship troubles wouldn't really stack up." He paused. Tali was still watching the floor. Dr. Chakwas stood in rapt attention.

"Perhaps it has less to do with what's going on in the Commander's mind and more to do with what he suspects Liara is going through?" Dr. Chakwas pondered. Garrus stopped to consider this.

Tali spoke up for the first time, still staring intently at the ground. "How do you cope with losing someone you love? How would you react if suddenly they came back from the void?"

Dr. Chakwas nodded. "I suspect that Liara is perhaps the only person in the galaxy who's had to address the latter question."

Garrus nodded, finally gaining some insight. He spoke, working aloud through what he suspected was Shepard's thought process. "Has she gotten over me? Does she still love me? Is there someone else? Does she resent me?" Dr. Chakwas and Tali both gave small nods.

They'd all known Shepard at least since he was made humanity's first SPECTRE almost two and a half years ago and they'd all been equally devastated by his apparent death so soon thereafter. Garrus had come to know Shepard not just as a fellow soldier but as a friend. In many ways they had become brothers, separated by space and species but brothers all the same. But none of them had had the relationship that Shepard and Liara shared. They'd all come to know her ever since Shepard and the original Normandy rescued her from a Geth attack on Therum just days after his SPECTRE inauguration. Garrus was no fool – as they chased Saren and his Geth army around the galaxy he could see the growing attraction Shepard and Liara developed for each other. They tried to be subtle but they didn't really fool anyone on board, especially not Garrus with his policeman's intuition and sharp observational skills. Then the Collectors attacked and destroyed the original Normand and apparently killed Shepard in the process. It had rocked Garrus to his core but his military experienced gave him the skills to shut up and soldier. He had tried to move on with his life, even though it would take him far away from C-Sec and the life he had known before the Normandy. Liara did not take it nearly so well. Shepard's death had destroyed her. During the time he had spent on Omega he had lost contact with Liara. Garrus had been taken somewhat aback on Illium – she hardly seemed like the same person anymore. She was harder, colder, more ruthless. She was a far cry from the naïve young scientist they had rescued from Therum all those years ago.

"As for Liara…" Garrus felt his voice trail off as he struggled to find the words. "I don't know. I just honestly don't know. When Shepard and I caught up on Omega and I learned that not only was he alive but that _Cerberus_ of all people had rebuilt him, I had my doubts. Clone, I thought. VI driving an organic body, I thought. But after being able to spend time catching up these last few weeks, seeing him in action on Horizon and the Collector ship – it's him. I know it in my bones. Not just physically, not just his DNA. Him – the same morals, the same judgment, the same discipline. The same memories and sense of humor. But Spirits, we've been after the Collectors for almost two months now. We just reached Illium, what, a few days ago? How the hell could Liara have the time to process all that?"

Tali looked up at Garrus for the first time. "Keeh'la. And Liara knows him so much better than any of us…"

"The bond," said Dr. Chakwas matter-of-factly.

Tali continued, "That only has to make it harder on her. She must be scared out of her wits. 'What if I touch his mind and he's not the man I remember?' It would be like losing him a second time, wouldn't it?"

Garrus's head sunk down into his chest. He wasn't sure this conversation was making him feel any better. Combat was so much simpler. See a friend in physical danger and a well placed headshot typically sorts the problem out. See a friend in physical pain and you activate their hardsuit's Medi-Gel systems. See a friend in emotional pain… two friends in emotional pain because of each other… Garrus didn't know what to do. He finally raised his head and saw his comrades equally lost in thought. All Garrus could decide on was that they needed a plan of action. "Where do we go from here?"

Tali didn't delay before answering. "I was planning on going down and seeing Liara in a bit. Maybe we could share our evening meal before we both bunk down. It would give us some time to talk."

"Yeah, well Shepard has to come out of his cabin to eat sometime too. I'll see if maybe he's more willing to talk then." Garrus nodded to himself, his mandibles clenched tightly against his face in determination.

"I believe I'm going to go have a chat with Ms. Lawson," said Dr. Chakwas. "No doubt she is reviewing footage from Cerberus's little med bay observation cameras as we speak. She is quite intelligent and capable of being discrete and I believe if I explain the delicacy of the situation to her she will be amenable to a policy of non-interference."

The three looked at each other in silence for a few seconds before nodding to each other in resignation. With that, they left the med bay together. Garrus headed for the main battery, intent on cleaning his armor, weapons, and himself. Tali headed down to engineering to run a few quick diagnostics before gathering an early dinner for both Liara and herself to share in the hold. Dr. Chakwas proceeded immediately to Miranda Lawson's office, hopeful that a full disclosure of facts would instill in the Cerberus operative an understanding of what was at stake for Commander Shepard's mental state and, thus, the state of the mission.

Once they all had left, against one wall of the med bay the air began to ripple, like a pond as the wind rolls along its surface. A sudden spark of electricity and the ripples disappeared, leaving a shrouded, human woman standing in its place. A woman with a coy and slightly mischievous grin.


End file.
